Freddie Freeman tried to explain what had transpired at Dodger Stadium, where he had just ended Game 1 of the World Series with an extra-inning grand slam, about an hour after the closest thing to a perfect baseball game could be. The game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees spanned 10 innings and 3 hours, 27 minutes, evolving from a pitchers' duel to a hitting and baserunning clinic to strategic theater to an unforgettable World Series highlight. Baseball at its best comes in many structures. They were all somehow crammed into this game.

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The Dodgers' 6-3 victory over the Yankees does not scream classic. It is deceptive. The 52,394 people who were able to watch Game 1 live on Friday night witnessed a rare sporting event in which the hype was exceeded. The two most well-known baseball teams, both genuine elites on their respective coasts, fought. Then, on a first-pitch fastball from Nestor Cortes that was 93 mph, Freeman was able to hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history with just one swing. This came 36 years after Kirk Gibson famously did the same thing.

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Freeman said, "Just look at this game," and he started jotting down everything that had happened. Baseball for four shutout innings. The Dodgers using a sacrifice fly to make a run. Countering with a towering two-run home run by Giancarlo Stanton. The Dodgers responded with a run against Luke Weaver, the Yankees' closer. After what appeared to be a Gleyber Torres home run by the Yankees, a Dodgers fan reached over the fence to catch it, and replay confirmed that it was ruled interference. New York tagging Blake Treinen, Los Angeles' best reliever, for a run in the tenth. And the tension in the 10th's bottom: a walk, an infield single, and a foul ball to the left brought up Shohei Ohtani, who intentionally walked Mookie Betts and moved the runners to second and third. This gave Freeman the opportunity to face Cortes, who hadn't pitched since Sept. 18.


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Schedule, bracket, and standings » Freeman stated, "Back-and-forth moments are what create classics." Also, I believe we made one tonight."


The tens of millions of people who watched it worldwide, in the United States, Japan, and other countries, are aware that they did. Baseball can have both good and bad moments, like Jazz Chisholm Jr. stealing second and third in the 10th inning and scoring because of Treinen's slow delivery. It can be ugly (both of the Yankees' corner outfielders converting doubles into triples) or great defense (Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman saved a run in the sixth inning by keeping a grounder in the infield).


Max Muncy, a third baseman for the Dodgers, stated, "Some people think a slugfest is a good game." A pitcher's duel, according to some, is a good game. I'm not sure. It's pretty fun, I think, if you just add a little bit of each element."

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Plenty was in this game. There was already built-in tension for the starters before the first pitch: Jack Flaherty and Gerrit Cole, both right-handers who were raised in Southern California. The Dodgers had made a desperate attempt to sign Cole when he was a free agent, and the Yankees had tried to trade for Flaherty in July but backed out. Now that they were playing against their former suitors, the two men spent the first inning one-upping each other.


Boone and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who had left in Flaherty for the third time through the order and paid dearly, began their scheming when Stanton's sixth-inning home run and subsequent stare, in addition to Flaherty's forlorn face after realizing the mistake he'd made, left the Dodgers trailing 2-1. Although Boone's decision to switch to Weaver in the eighth inning after Ohtani doubled off the top of the wall and advanced to third because of New York's poor defense was sound from a strategic standpoint, the Dodgers were able to tie the score.


After two innings, it could have been Ohtani once more, Betts, or really anyone in the terrifying Dodgers lineup from top to bottom. The fact that it was Freeman, a 35-year-old first baseman, was the most extraordinary ending possible.


"I was hoping Mookie would get a hit to take the pressure off of him," Freeman's father Fred said as Freeman ran after the home run and interlocked his hands through the field netting. They then led him by foot. Oh, Freddie, Freddie, Freddie, I thought. Then comes the first pitch.



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It has been difficult to watch Freeman over the past month. Not only that, but he had not reached base in any of the Dodgers' first 11 playoff games. It's clear that Freeman is hurting. His injured ankle aches. He hurts all over. He has won the World Series eight times with Atlanta in 2021 and is likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. With Max, his 3-year-old son, battling a bout of Guillain-Barré syndrome, he had already gone through a difficult year. In the hope that the five days off since the NLCS would do his body enough good to do something memorable, Freeman kept pushing through the pain.


He was ready to, as evidenced by his first-inning triple while he was hobbling around the bases. Nobody had any idea that there would be an even better conclusion.


Anthony Banda, a reliever for the Dodgers, stated, "Really, honestly, and truly, in my eyes, he's a superhero." It says a lot about him as a player and as a person to watch him overcome the injury and see the rehab he did, the time he spent trying to get back to health, and his efforts to get back on the field. He truly values this group. He is interested in the organization. We are all motivated by his concern for victory.


That holds true for everyone on the field on Friday, including the Yankees, who are now trying to recover from a gut punch that was as gut-wrenching as it gets. The good news is that the Yankees still have a lot of baseball to play and a lot of chances to do so, and the standard for the rest of the series has gone from high to high.


If this is the kind of series in which magic runs through, in which two teams are so good, so evenly matched, so ready for the moment, and so eager to win that the hype is simply an accelerant, then it is unfair to suggest that any of the remaining games can match Game 1. Perhaps Saturday night's second game will build on the success of the first.


Kiké Hernández, a Dodgers center fielder, said, "The ending." It doesn't get any better than that, you know."


Actually, it does because Hernández is omitting something. The 120th World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees, a battle of titans who have a lot more great baseball left in them, is just the beginning.

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